CentOS is mostly a server distribution. Yes, it can run on your desktop, as
I've shown you before, it can be made super cool and modern, but it is not really designed with a personal
computer in mind. Therefore, it is always a pleasure when you can take an enterprise product and adapt it to
your home environment. Successfully.

Anyhow, I did promise to test and retest a whole bunch of distros on my new test machine, a T61 laptop with two
SSD, which completely changes the game when it comes to using old and new
hardware combined. I've done my share of Ubuntu family runs, all with good results. Let's see how and if CentOS
6.2 behaved on the same hardware. Numerous links to articles on a variety of subjects mentioned just now are
listed further below.

Live session & installation

T61 is not that much different from T60p, which was used in the original review, hence all the expected
peripherals and hardware components worked just fine, including Wireless, Bluetooth and suchlike. Most
importantly, CentOS had no qualms detecting the SSD drives, which is the crucial bit here, otherwise we would
not be having this article right now.

The machine has four operating systems installed - Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and the latest version of Mint. I
replaced Xubuntu Pangolin with CentOS. I placed the bootloader into the root partition, and left Ubuntu 12.04
in control of the MBR. P.S. If you want to read these four distro reviews, links are
awaiting your clicks further below.

The installation was fairly quick. Normally, CentOS takes its time churning bytes, but this time, the whole
procedure, executed from a bootable USB carrying a live DVD image lasted only about 10 minutes.

Running CentOS on SSD

Now, here's the really spicy part. You know that CentOS is quick. Gnome 2, no special effects, just pure
optimization and WARP speed. And it's true for older machines with 32-bit processors, it's true for my
top-of-the-line laptops. SSD does offer some extra quickness, but it cannot make great any greater.

Therefore, the installed system will underwhelm you at first, especially if you're expecting magic to happen,
forgetting how sprightly and nimble CentOS is in the first place. But the extra pull from solid-state
technology does come to bear in several areas. One is the boot process, optimization thereof never having been
a primary focus of the RedHat dev team, as most enterprise and data center hardware takes long minutes just
initializing, making any speed gain in the actual system boot meaningless. So, how does SSD affect this
particular vector of joy? I will not tell you yet. We will have a separate article on that, shame on me, the
attention seeker that I am.

Speed gains are also noticeable in serial large data reads and writes from the disk. Battery life is also
somewhat extended, showing at around 3 hours on this particular hardware, almost 20% more than most rival
systems. However, most of the time, you will forget you have SSD and just work normally. You will be pleased by
the speed and responsiveness, but that's nothing new.

Look & feel

If you are running a modern system on modern hardware, at least some parts, then it's only fitting to make it
look as presentable. Similar to what I did with Ubuntu and Xubuntu, I started doing some quick spit and polish.
I changed the theme, window borders, the icons, and the wallpaper, instantly transforming CentOS 6.2 into a
lovely beast.

Here's a whole bunch of great screenshots. Scroll and drool:

Functionality

It's all there, of course. A solid bunch of KDE and Gnome programs, webcam, Firefox 10 ESR, and some more. No
proprietary media codecs, unless you install some of the third-party repositories, but you already know how to
setup those.

More reading

I have a whole bunch of articles for you:

CentOS, the first installation before going large with my Nvidia-powered laptop

Other distros tested on this box:

There's more, Ubuntu on my high-end laptop, Ubuntu with Cinnamon, just hop over into the Software section and
read the whole bloody lot. This is just a friendly suggestion, not a threat, now there, no need to get upset.

Conclusion

I must say I'm quite pleased. I had not expected CentOS to behave so well, but then I had. It's only expected
from a first-class distro, even when it pulls a desktop trick that is not warranted in its enterprise pedigree.
Once again, CentOS shows its quality.

With a whole bunch of great programs, and there ought to be LibreOffice landing in the official repositories,
hopefully soon, complementing the new Firefox version, plus some extras, and new themes and icons, CentOS
becomes as modern and relevant as any other contemporary distro. Only it offers 10 springs of leal
service, stability and blazing performance, and it's just adamant, not to be confused with Adam Ant. In fact,
the performance thingie will be the main factor to cause a whiff of disappointment, because if you expect SSD
to render miracles to an already extremely well optimized product, then there won't any. Which is all good.

Anyhow, you know what to expect. I like this, a lot. CentOS 6.2 + SSD, a great formula. A bit more battery
life, excellent compatibility, some extra throughput for sustained operations. And there's the boot stage, but
that's a separate article. Enjoy.